The Arizona sentinel., 1887-05-28

The followers of any profession or oc- cupation having as a general thing words and phrases peculiar to their calling, with meaning more or less ob- scure to those not familiar with the matters. These terms in the case of the honorable professions are called technical, but they might neverthe- less, be called slang. Slang is, how. ever, the technical language of the classes who are under the ban of the law or of public sentiment. Pure slang originates as general thing among thieves, gamblers and prize-fghters, and it has its reason for existence in the fact that the members of these hon. orable professions find it necessary to discuss their operations and affairs SC that outsiders may not understand. The elevation of the prize-fghter to the pc sition of a popular favorite, and oi prize-fghting to rank in the field oi sport has made its slang rather com monly intelligible. Gamblers slang, too. has been made familiar to every one through the newspapers. Thieves slang, however, is not so gen. orally understood, for the thief, as such, desires to be unknown, and his slang is only effective among his confreres. The old talk of inc thieves is not so generally used as it used to be. In fact, slang among thieves of eminence in their profession has died out almost completely, for the reason that talking slang was soon found to be means of attracting at tention-a very undesirable thing to this gentry. Among the lesser fry the use of slang still prevails, but the meaning of terms changes more rap idly than it used to. Time was when a member of the crooked fraternity could rattle off five or six sentences entirely unintelligible, and a detective's con- Yersation was a marvel of mysterious meaning. Slang originating with the thieves has passed now to the news boys and young roughs. who use it all most constantly. Some of it passes In- to use among better-informed people, but not much, and the greater part of the "lingo" in use to-day among thieves is as unintelligible to an honest man as if it was so much Hot tentot. The detectives, if pos sible, use more slang then thief, and and they keep up with all the additions to the rogues' lexicon, for the reason that it is part of a detective's pride to to understand the talk while the thief uses his slang only to convey his ideas sub rosa to his partners, and not as a linguistic requirement.
 The use of slang by detective was laughably illustrated not long ago at the four courts, when one of the local lynxes was put on the witness stand to testify as to the arrest of the defendant. After declaring that the prisoner had several more or less weird and incom- prehensible aliases and was bad man, the prosecuting attorney asked:
 ''How did you come to arrest himP"
 Well" replied the detective, 'I was going down Broadway, and just in front I spied his nobs. I piped' him awhile, and then he got his lamps on me and screwed his nut and damned. "
 The foreman of the jury was just on the point of calling for an interpreter, when the lawyer translated the de- tective's testimony, explaining that ''his nobs'' was defendant, that pip ing was watching, lamps meant eyes, and that when the man screwed his nut and damned" he started to run away.
 The explanation of a case by a de- tective, if printed in his language, would to the general reader look like a sample of the new language which some crank in Europe has invented for universal use. In the language of the thieves all men who violate the laws of meum ct tuum, whether by force, fraud or ingenuity, are crooks" but crooks are subdivided into other classes. The bank burglar is gopher" and dip" ''wire, tool" are the names for a pickpocket. A ''moll wire" is one who robs women only, and a very slangy crook might in a moment of slang slinging enthusiasm substitute for the term another, mol buzzer." A wom- an is mol, ' while boy is always a "kd." If the burglar goes by himself he is a ''single-footer." A "stall'' is one who watches while burglar works or engages the attention of visitors while pickpockets are at work. A man or an institution selected to be robbed or victimized is mark; highway